


Come home to me

by Cats_Dont_Float



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Humanstuck, M/M, One Shot, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, Sleepy Cuddles, dave and karkat being parenting team of the year tbh, dirk is like four
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:40:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22533394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cats_Dont_Float/pseuds/Cats_Dont_Float
Summary: Dave's been working late, working himself to the bone. Karkat turns up to drag him home and force him to get some sleep.
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas
Comments: 9
Kudos: 110





	Come home to me

“Dave.”

Dave looks up at the voice and is unsurprised to find his cousin (and boss), Rose, leaning over his shoulder and peering at his computer.

“Sup?” He grunts, tapping a few more keys to finish the sentence he’s writing before spinning his chair around as dramatically as possible to face her.

She rolls her eyes fondly. “Go home,” she says, “You’ve been here for hours and your shift ended ages ago.”

He shakes his head faintly. “I’ve almost finished this editorial,” he says, “Give me half an hour more and I’ll be out of your hair.”

“It’s not my hair I’m worried about,” she says, “It’s you. Don’t you have people to go home to?”

He knocks his shades down his nose a little so she can watch him raise an eyebrow at her. “You know I do,” he tells her, “But that’s not the point. I’m up to my neck in work. Drowning in the stuff. And it’s date night tomorrow night, I don’t wanna be thinking about work tomorrow night.”

Rose stares for a second more, and he can practically see her thinking. “Right,” she says with a small nod. Then she turns on her heel and strides off, and he can hear her shoes clicking professionally against the floor as she stalks away. He watches her go, a little confused. Rose never gives up that easily. Then he just shrugs and turns back to his work.

For the next half an hour he works as quickly as he can, scanning over the paragraphs he’s already written and trying to find enough to write to reach his word count goal. The words start to swim before his eyes a little, blurring into one, and he rubs at his eyes tiredly, wondering if this is what Egbert sees when he takes his glasses off. Behind him he vaguely hears someone walk in his direction, but figures it’s probably one of the night crew (maybe Feferi, he saw her leave her desk a while ago and she’s probably just returning). But then suddenly a hand lands on his shoulder. He panics slightly in his exhausted state, flinching away, even though it’s probably only Rose. Then he realises the hand’s just a little too heavy for her, and anyway, Rose isn’t really big on physical contact in the workplace. So he spins around and his eyes fly open wide in shock behind his shades.

“Karkat?”

The short, tired looking man standing there just shakes his head faintly at Dave. There’s a toddler resting on his hip, head lolling tiredly against his shoulder, but he looks up tiredly and blinks slowly at Dave. 

“Hey little man, where are your shades?” Dave asks, reaching out and letting his boyfriend gently pass the toddler to him. The kid murmurs something tiredly into his shirt, and Dave looks up at Karkat with a small smile.

“Hey, Karkat,” he murmurs tiredly, “Sorry, I kinda just ditched Dirk with you, didn’t I?”

“That’s not a problem and you know it,” Karkat says, “You know I love taking care of Dirk. What I don’t like is when you overwork yourself. Come home. Please?”

Dave shifts his little brother to sit more comfortably in his lap, and smiles tiredly up at boyfriend. “Yeah, alright,” he sighs, “I guess you’re right.”

“I’m always right and you know it,” Karkat says, “Come on, Rose called me and practically begged me to take you home. Better get home before she gets really angry.”

Dave laughs faintly, managing to get to his feet while keeping hold of Dirk, though he has to pass the boy back to Karkat so he can get his jacket on. Then the two of them slowly start to head through the office, which is mostly empty now, aside from a few of the workers who work through the night. Feferi’s returning to her desk as they pass, and she smiles at Dave fondly, stopping for a second to coo at Dirk. People always do that to Dirk; he’s a cute kid, and Dave can’t help being proud of his little brother for some reason.

Karkat’s old, broken car is parked up by the side of the road right outside the office building, and Dave falls tiredly into the front seat while Karkat straps Dirk into his seat in the back. The kid’s out like a light before Karkat even gets into the driver’s seat.

“Hey, babe,” Dave says just as Karkat’s about to turn the key in the ignition, and Karkat turns to look at him, “I’m sorry for always putting work above you at the moment. I’m just stressed about stuff and I hope you know I still love you and I just -”

He’s cut off by Karkat leaning forward and planting his mouth over Dave’s with just a little too much force. The kiss is a little sloppy due to their tiredness, but Karkat works a hand into Dave’s hair and Dave gets a grip on Karkat’s sweater, and for a moment both of them just appreciate being so close to each other after a long day spent apart.

“I love you too, so much,” Karkat murmurs as he finally pulls away from Dave, gently cupping Dave’s face and sweeping his thumb across his cheek gently. “It’s okay to care about your work, but I worry about you sometimes. Just… take some time to relax sometimes, okay?”

“I will. Promise,” Dave murmurs. He leans in to press a quick kiss to Karkat’s nose, laughing as he watches his boyfriend’s face scrunch up adorably.

Karkat turns away to cover his face as he blushes, something Dave finds ridiculously cute, and then he turns the key and the car’s engine sputters to life. Dave lets his head fall back against the headrest, and within seconds the rumbling of the car’s engine makes him drift off to sleep.

He’s woken up by Karkat opening up his door for him when he’s parked outside their apartment, and blinks tiredly at him from behind his shades. Dirk’s stood by Karkat’s side, swaying on his feet and holding on tightly to Karkat’s hand.

“Hey,” Dave murmurs, sliding out of his seat and then crouching down to scoop Dirk up. 

“Time for bed for all of us, I think,” Karkat laughs softly, kicking the car door shut. 

“Yeah, you’re right,” Dave grins, cradling Dirk’s head gently against his chest as he begins to walk inside. 

The apartment’s dark when they get in, and Karkat stumbles into the apartment ahead of Dave, cursing softly as he stumbles over a pair of shoes that’s been left on the floor, and eventually he finds the light switch and hits it. They all wince as the bright lights hit their eyes, and Dirk whines something, fidgeting in Dave’s arms.

“Let’s get you to sleep, little man,” Dave murmurs softly. “Back in a second,” he whispers to Karkat before disappearing off to Dirk’s little bedroom at the very back of the apartment. Dirk’s room is a mess of plush animals, books and toys scattered across the floor, and Dave steps around it all carefully to get to Dirk’s bed and gently tuck his brother into bed. He scoops up a purple hippo plush from the floor and tucks it in next to Dirk.

“Night,” Dirk murmurs tiredly, already falling asleep as his head hits the pillow.

“Night, bro,” Dave says with a smile, crouching down and brushing Dirk’s hair back to press a kiss to his forehead. The kid giggles softly, jokingly batting Dave away, and Dave tucks the covers up around him carefully before switching on the little night light at the edge of the room. Dirk’s already dozing off, so he creeps back out of the room, and flicks the main lights off before pulling the door closed and leaving quietly.

Karkat’s already in their bedroom by the time Dave’s done putting Dirk to sleep, stretched out across their whole bed on his back and staring up at the ceiling. Dave kicks off his shoes and then his jeans, before climbing onto the bed and curling up by Karkat’s side.

“Thanks for dragging me back home,” Dave murmurs, “And for looking after Dirk. and just for being a great boyfriend.”

Karkat hums something softly and presses a clumsy kiss to Dave’s lips. “I’d do anything for you, you know that,” Karkat smiles softly.

“Yeah, I know,” Dave smiles, “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Karkat replies softly, “Now can we get some sleep? I’m tired.”

“Mmh, me too,” Dave grunts softly, wriggling closer to Karkat and closing his eyes. Karkat’s still wearing his clothes from the day, the light’s still on in the room, and neither of them are under the covers, but it’s almost too easy for them both to fall asleep there in each others arms, and Dave can’t help being ridiculously thankful that Karkat brought him home. He’ll make sure to make it up to him at tomorrow’s date night.

**Author's Note:**

> this is just a tired davekat ramble from an idiot who has wasted their entire weekend making homestuck cosplays and now has to return to college tomorrow without all their work done. homestuck continues to consume my soul. anyways, davekat! hope you enjoyed it. this is kinda crappy but i wanted to post something.


End file.
